by Terry McCombs
Scathach — The Shadowy One, The Fierce Woman, She Who Strikes Fear — is a figure who sits at the boundary between warrior and goddess, history and myth. She appears in the Irish Táin Bó Cuailnge as the trainer of the hero Cú Chulainn, yet her domain is far wider: prophetess, healer, blacksmith, psychopomp. Terry McCombs, writing his monthly God/dess of the Month Club column for soc.religion.paganism in September 2007, makes the case that whatever category she belongs to — legendary warrior, Sidhe queen, or guiding spirit — Scathach is "goddess enough to count." His essay, informed by Celtic scholarship and his own deep familiarity with cross-cultural hero traditions, illuminates a figure whose modern obscurity is an injustice.
McCombs was a regular presence in soc.religion.paganism for over a decade, posting his monthly deity profiles with care and erudition. Each profile follows a consistent devotional format — names, symbols, holy days, synodeities, narrative details — that transforms the academic impulse into something more like a living religious almanac. His Scathach profile is particularly notable for his discussion of heterognostic learning, the Celtic tradition by which only women could teach men and only men could teach women, and for the historical note that this tradition came to its formal end at the Synod of Tara in 697 CE.
NAME: Scathach (pronounced Skaw-Thach). The Shadowy One, The Fierce Woman, She Who Strikes Fear, Scota, Scatha.
SYMBOLS: Sword. Cauldron in some accounts.
USUAL IMAGE: An attractive athletic woman, with (according to some) red hair. Who, when in a battle rage would go red — very red — in the face and even have her arms swell in size.
HOLY BOOKS: Táin Bó Cuailnge, the "Cattle Raid of Cooley" also known as The Tain, and "Death of Aoife's Only Son."
HOLY DAYS: None known.
PLACE OF WORSHIP: At the death of a relative or friend.
RELATIVES: Kerridwen (Mother), Kyre and Ginevra (sisters), Gwyn ap Nudd (Husband), Uathach "Spectre" (Daughter), Cuar and Cett (Sons — names in question, but she did have at least two).
SYNODEITIES: All warrior woman goddesses.
Details
There will be some who disagree with my calling Scathach a Goddess, saying that she was "merely" a remarkable warrior woman among a group of people noted for remarkable warriors.
However I think even people from that group will have to admit that she was more than just above average.
There are also accounts that say she was one of the Sidhe, or as some would call them the Fairies.
So while some might not call her a Goddess, I think if you will let me mix my metaphors a bit and take a Japanese approach and call such beings — be they fairy, spirit, demon, angel, or god — Kami (higher beings), then whether warrior woman of legend, Sidhe Queen, or guiding spirit, Scathach is goddess enough to count!
Scathach is from the Celtic era where a form of heterognostic learning (and yes I am making up a new word right before your eyes) was practiced.
This custom said that only women could teach men and only men could teach women. This tradition held with woodcraft, blacksmithing, healing, hunting and the magical and martial arts. It ensured a more egalitarian and free status for women in a time when this was rare to say the least.
It came to an official end in 697 CE at a gathering of Christian clergy, lesser royals and the High King at Tara when he declared the Cáin Adomnáin, which prohibited women and priests from taking part in war, though priests were left with the power to influence matters.
Before this a woman had greater freedom (though it had been deteriorating for a few hundred years) so that a woman might divorce her husband if he failed to support her, treat her with respect or just gossiped about their sex life!
In Scathach's era, however, women not only participated in battle but were some of the most fierce and able proponents of the craft.
The Shadowy One was not just a fighter and teacher of fighters. She was also versed in healing and blacksmithing as well as a prophetess who used a method known as Imbas Forasnai, the Light of Foresight, to obtain visions of the future.
Scathach, along with her family and students, lived on the Isle of Skye in a castle — which seems earthy enough until you consider the trials that those who sought training from her had to go through.
These trials were such things as climbing the Western Mountains, getting past a dragon's lair, walking down a road covered with razor-sharp rocks (while the road somehow made the travelers' feet stick to it), and the Bridge of Leaps, which spanned a gorge filled with monsters from nightmare and was so constructed that anyone who stepped on it made it start to tilt into the gorge, so that the only way across was to first leap to the center of the bridge and slide down to the other side.
Taking into account those perils, I think we have to disregard the notion that The Fierce One was an ordinary mortal.
I think it would also explain why some say that it is Scathach that one must call upon to lead the recently dead past the dangers that are found on the path to the Land of Eternal Youth.
So be it as teacher of Cú Chulainn, patroness of blacksmithing, healing and Celtic martial arts, prophetess, or guide of the dead to Tír na nÓg — I would say that Scathach is a worthy Goddess indeed.
Colophon
Originally posted to soc.religion.paganism on September 30, 2007, as part of Terry McCombs's long-running "God/dess of the Month Club" series. McCombs posted monthly cross-cultural deity profiles to this newsgroup from 2003 onward, combining devotional format with genuine comparative scholarship. His profiles are among the finest examples of lay theological writing produced by the online pagan community. Message-ID: <[email protected]>.
Preserved from the Usenet archive for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.
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